Big gay rights victory in Ireland

by Philip Ferguson

The south of Ireland has given a resounding ‘yes’ to equal marriage rights.  The vote has gone roughly 62% for, 38% against.  In Dublin the vote is more like 70-30 and in some of the big working class areas voting booths have even shown support as high as 80%.  The working class and young people voted overwhelmingly for marriage equality.

Indeed, the socialist-republican organisation éirígí noted the day after the referendum: “Tallies have revealed that the YES vote is highest amongst working class communities in cities and towns across the Twenty-Six Counties.

“In Dublin the people of areas like Tallaght, Ballymun, Ballyfermot, Coolock and the South Inner City have voted for equality by margins of up to four to one.

“Many of these same communities are also hotbeds of resistance to the water tax and austerity. All indicators of the growing levels of political awareness and mobilisation – of the potential strength of an organised working class.

“Yesterday we broke the chains of church domination. Tomorrow we break the chains of capitalist exploitation!”

Only one constituency – Roscommon/South Leitrim – recorded a ‘no’ majority and it was very narrow.

While the Catholic, Presbyterian and Methodist churches called for a ‘no’ vote, they – especially the Catholic hierarchy – no longer have the power to determine the outcome on referenda on social issues.  The tide finally began to turn on these reactionaries in the early-mid 1990s and is now clearly moving with the forces of modernisation and liberalisation.  Given the breadth of forces calling for a ‘yes’ vote – from rugby legend Brian O’Driscoll and Irish soccer team captain Robbie Keane to the Gaelic Players Association which represents over 2,000 hurlers and Gaelic football players at county level (they consulted their members and found 85% supported equal marriage rights) to trade unions to crooner Daniel O’Donnell to all the parties in the southern parliament and substantial business interests – the result was never in doubt; it was simply a question of how big the majority would be.

At the same time, it is important to recognise that the dominant section of the establishment in the south is now the liberal bourgeoisie.  They’re all for gay rights, but are utterly anti-working class.  They continue to impose vicious austerity on the working class.  The fight against them will be even harder than the fight against the reactionary religious hierarchies.

For the background to the referendum, see: Southern Irish society and politics and the referendum on gay marriage 

For gay liberation pieces on this blog, see Gay liberation on Redline

Postscript: On the same day there was another referendum.  Voters decided by a three-to-one majority not to lower to twenty-one the age at which people can stand for the presidency.  Currently you have to be 35 to be a presidential candidate.  Also on May 22, there was a by-election in the Carlow-Kilkenny constituency.  It was won by Fianna Fail, the dominant party in the south from 1932-2011, when it only came third in the general election.  The FF win was as expected, their candidate having lost his seat in the 2011 landslide defeat for the party.